I agree that github is for developers or people who at the very least don’t mind learning a bit of development and getting their hands dirty. The poster demanding an exe is quite entitled - and also from what I understand the repo he is referring to is a python repo, so there normally wouldn’t be an exe, it’d just be run via a python command.
There’s a bigger problem here, which is that technical skill in newer generations is also decreasing - as someone on reddit had once said “I’m a millennial and I’m doing tech support for my parents as well as my children”. A generation raised on tablets and phones have gotten the false impression of being tech savy, when their actual technical skill is using end products.
Expecting every github repo to provide you with something you just click-and-run is overlooking the complexities and reality of how code is. By it self that isn’t a problem, but the entitlement it takes to publicly and arrogantly post that on a public forum is astounding and counter-productive to people who work on those small repos.
Is this the power of millennials? Being relatively competent at technology?
Nobody has any idea how old this poster is, it could be an old ass boomer as easily as it could be a zoomer and we’re just going on making statements about the technical abilities of new generations without any actual evidence other than a single person that can’t do something for themselves? There are many, many people from my graduating class who would be as helpless as this person and I’m fucking 30.
The same thing happened in the previous generation too. Some boomer would start raging about how these millennials don’t know how to fix cars or install toilets or whatever anymore based on one cherry picked example and the other 95% of boomers that have been paying a mechanic or a plumber this whole time and don’t know how to do shit would just nod along.
Yes, but knowing how to install a toilet the difficult way (instead of hiring a plumber) was replaced by knowing how to install a program the difficult way (via a command line instead of an installer).
Now, Zoomers aren’t stupid or tech illiterate, I have a Zoomer friend and she’s more tech literate than I am. The issue is that installing a program the hard way has been replaced with minimizing your carbon and digital footprints. That’s not the skill of a super predator, its the skill of prey. We’ve been reduced to prey for the shareholders of corporations.
There are people whose entire understanding and knowledge of the internet exists entirely inside the Facebook app
Buy phone Install Facebook The end.
Creates something free to use and ask for nothing in return
People complain because they have to chmod +x a Shell file
A tale as old as the internet.
The funny thing is many file managers in Linux allow you to enable execution in a properties panel. The problem is with so many different apps the terminal is universal and works about the same everywhere.
You’re giving them way too much credit, they just need to ask “Chat” how to run the code. That’s how 16-20 year olds refer to ChatGPT. It’s two minutes of copy paste and “how do I run this”
I’m pretty sure “chat” means Twitch chat. Streamers usually asks “chat” for questions, and teenagers have adopted this vocabulary for everyday use.
That’s how 16-20 year olds refer to ChatGPT.
As a 17 year old, I hear this for the first time.
Maybe it’s regional at my university, but I’ve heard it from multiple students over the past three semesters.
I hear it as well, and it confused me at first
There’s a little trick my parents passed down to me whenever I asked them what a word meant or how to do something when I was a kid, “look it up yourself”. Look up the word in the dictionary, learn how to learn how to do things, and then when you get stuck ask for help graciously. Self reliance isn’t something that just happens, it takes effort and often failure.
It’s a great learning technique. My family and girlfriend always say I’m so smart cause I know a lot. I don’t think I’m that smart I just always take that extra step to Google something if I have any questions. Doesn’t matter how small or unimportant it may seem, you never know what sort of rabbit hole you’ll fall down and how much you’ll learn because of it.
A meme made in response (not by me):
Oh shit that’s an old one but still great
The more I see of Gen Z the more I feel secure in my IT job. There’s no new generation of home grown tech nerds coming to push us out. Half of these guys think hacking is hitting view-source on a webpage or (hushed whispers) finding the developer tools menu…
Same with millennials, gen x, boomers… The prospect that a generation who grew up using technology would have an inherent understanding of how it works has proven empty.
Of all of them my experience is that younger gen x / older millennial are the most hands-on technically literate. Grew up in 80s 90s as home computers became main stream but required a good deal of tinkering. They currently form the body of 40-50 year old electrical engineers, senior devs and consultants. Not really in game development (where crazy hours are a young man’s game), rather IT and business as a whole.
Steps to building a cool program (the really cool way)
- Clone the GitHub repository
- Open command prompt
- Run the build command
- It fails because the repository owner uses a different c++ compiler and it only works with that one
- It fails again, realize you installed visual studio wrong somehow so spend an hour trying to get the visual studio installer to find and uninstall it before deleting the installation directory entirely and installing the required version again
- It still fails, the project looks for version “” of protobuf but you have “3.1.10.1” so you reconfigure it to look for a real version of protobuf
- It fails again, some tool that isn’t in the readme is required to build it
- It fails again, it’s not actually compatible with windows yet
- Give up and wait for pre built binaries
Edit: did the other guy that responded block me? I got a notification about it but can’t load the comment
Hey welcome to our group session. Just know that we all have been hurt by C++ build systems and this is a safe space
I feel so welcome, thank you
I used to run Slackware and have built many, many packages this way.
These days…gimme a .deb, please. It’s not that I can’t do it…it’s that I want to do other things.
If you want Blender with CUDA support from source… Man, this is the way. Thank God for their benevolence in releasing build binaries.
I sure learned a ton while painfully trying to figure it all out though! Lol
Yuck, imagine using M*crosoft’s C++ compiler 🤮
People misunderstand the target audience of GitHub—which is specifically not the general public, but yes, developers. If you don’t want to be treated as a developer, don’t use a platform designed for developers. And I’m saying this as someone who’s having a horrible time learning hot git and GitHub works. (Not because it’s bad, I’m just a slow learner lol)
Git design is a little bit bad, mostly just in the UI that is unintuitive and sometimes needlessly complex. Its why things like JJ and Mercurial are still being made.
Even things that have compiled binaries, it’s not so easy to find the page with the actual download button sometimes on GitHub.
i don’t get this, just go to the releases page? like 2-3 clicks and you have a series of links to “theprogram.exe” “theprogram.sh” “theprogram.zip”
or are you just talking about shit like libraries? because yeah that’s… not how you install libraries…
https://github.com/sherlock-project/sherlock?tab=readme-ov-file#installation Interesting, is this used for cyberstalking?
Regardless if you use any python then it is super easy. If you don’t use python, it is super easy to learn. If you are unwilling to learn, then ask for help and don’t be a condescending dick. BUT i usually don’t like to spend time helping people that are unwilling to learn.
It could be used for cyberstalking, but it’s not expressly built for that use case I think. All it does is spit out sites that have a matching user name on file. It’s actually quite useful for periodic social media / account cleanup to check for account you created for one reason or another and no longer need / have grown dormant.
In that sense it’s similar to something like Mine.
I mean I used it to see what shit I signed up with, especially if you’ve had your email for a few years. I used the website not the app
If they just asked kindly those “stupid smelly nerds” would’ve gladly helped bit no you have to be an idiot and an entitled little shit.
deleted by creator
Considering the nature of the tool, if you can’t understand how to use the tool. You should be banned. Its not something for laypersons.
This person has interacted with stupid smelly nerds, confirmed. It’s a feedback loop, in any case. The elitism is going to naturally spin out from the power imbalance created by the stupid smelly nerds also being the ones that have access to all the knowledge. For all the commitment to open source principles and ideas, lots of people just kind of don’t understand that one of the most critical aspects of open source is making your shit accessible.
Devs tend to forget that they get paid so much because they know things most don’t. If everyone was comfortable with things that seem simple to them like running a git install, devs wouldn’t be as sought after.
I don’t think in this case, they forgot. It might be for the better to keep explosives out of the hands of “non-experts”.
Most devs on github don’t get paid
Most devs on github are not living out of a cardboard box. They have day jobs.
And their repo is not part of their work.
I think this is satire because the app in question is a social media finder and the only non computer users who would want to use it probably uses apple or won’t know what an exe even is.
Also
# clone the repo $ git clone https://github.com/sherlock-project/sherlock.git
# change the working directory to sherlock $ cd sherlock
# install the requirements $ python3 -m pip install -r requirements.txt
3 commands lmao
You would be surprised. There are a lot of wannabe hackers out there and many have the entitled attitude shown in OP’s posts.
Many of them are also completely alien to the command line as well. What are clear instructions to you and me may as well be Hylian to such skiddies.
I used to have a lot of old cybersec material from late 90s/early 2000s. A lot has changed since then but skiddies? They haven’t changed a bit.
I miss the days when the Kali community used to dunk on people asking basic linux questions because they had no idea what Debian is lol.
I remember some nicer dude in a forum telling newbies to use Linux permanently for at least a month before even trying to do anything with Kali.
Everyone else was bringing a metric load of roasts and Torvalds level of insults lmao.
Those still go on in certain places and omg the Kali Facebook groups xD
fellas is it entitled to want to install a program without learning the intricacies of the command line
Yes if its a free program designed to run on the command line
Not in the linux world they aren’t, the entire community is built on entitlement and elitism.
If you can’t ‘be on their level’, they don’t want to even know you exist.
I have been working in IT 3 decades and I’ve NEVER had a more hostile forum thread than just trying to get help in a linux forum for gpu drivers.
15 day old account shitposting about Linux entitlement called “mods_are_assholes”
We got a ban-evading wannabe skiddie, boys.
Nice harassment campaign, let’s see what the admins think about it.
Nah I kinda agree, just give me a “download” button somewhere. I don’t care about your build file, deprecated classes, list of supporters or whatever the fuck else you keep on there.
I just want to download the software and use it.
I would suggest that github is the wrong place to go look for that. Github is for developers, primarily a place to share source code, for people who DO care about build files, deprecated classes, contributors, and git history - so they can make the software that runs large parts of the modern world more efficient and flexible.
Whether there’s an executable provided is completely optional and up to each author. Further, considering in this specific example it was python code, it’s far more flexible for the author to provide python run instructions (which the author HAD provided by the way) than it is to give you a .exe which would take extra, unnecessary effort, and overlooks that the tool he was writing could also be used on linux and macos based machines (because python command exist on those)
…how hard is it to upload something in the release section for people to download?
Compared to giving your dumb ass the source? A lot. A lot of effort. Shut up and learn how to run two simple commands.
Yeah fuck people who want a streamlined and convenient user experience. They must be dumb.
If you want a streamlined and convenient user experience, then go fuck off and find commercial software with paid support where a good user experience is expected
Someone made a tool, thought it was cool and wanted to share what they had for free, they owe you nothing especially a “streamlined and convenient user experience”
Yeah and I just want to be a millionaire. Son, it ain’t happening just because you want it.
Wanting the most used version control platform in the world, that is owned by the biggest software developer in the world to have slightly better UX, is not the same as wanting g to be a millionaire.
This isn’t a UX problem. If a project’s contributors don’t want to put out an easy install, tough shit.
The worst is when there is an error in the install commands that you have to debug and correct yourself. When they didn’t even bother to test their install commands it gives me pause about even installing the thing. But I’ve definitely had the experience before and then had the actual software itself work fine
They’re not a script kiddie for just wanting a binary. Wtf is this gatekeeping?
The accusations comes from them wanting to use a small tool for specific nefarious purpose (tracking people across social media). That’s what “script kiddie” generally means: younger people lacking technical expertise seeking to use the “hacking” tools that others have made.
Someone created an issue for they generated an exe. The answers are interesting
My biggest disagreement towards the comments that I have read is, it is a low bar for script kiddies. It is so low that I don’t think the script kiddy that fails this bar is not even a script kiddy.
Yeah those people are just failed stalkers
You know so for this specific instance I kind of find it to be, dumb, right, really stupid, but obviously this guy is trolling, and I think in this thread I’ve even seen an .exe that someone compiled get posted, so I guess, good things come to those who shitpost and bitch, or whatever.
Also glad this post is (hopefully) dead, so I can write my reflections that nobody else is gonna realistically read.
More broadly, though, I’ve seen a lot of technically minded linux using system admin types, nerds, basically, right, that just kind of shit relentlessly on anyone who doesn’t know as much as them. Which sucks, for sure, it’s really annoying. It gives me the same vibe as when people talk about how everyone who moves to their country should speak the language, and understand every facet of the culture and every custom, because they’re a “guest”. I mean, yeah, sure, that’s partially true I suppose, and certainly it would help if that were the case, to smooth the transition, right, but it’s also really stupid to expect everyone to acclimate immediately. There are external factors that drive someone to settle in a country, right, could be asylum, could be, socioeconomic asylum. Those are your two options, basically. It’s not really like these people don’t give anything back, either, since they provide high amounts of economic value, they import their culture which can be beneficial, shit like that. It would just straight up make more sense to accommodate them more, to be nicer to them, because it would make it easier for them to acclimate. You will statistically have better outcomes if you choose that path, compared to just kind of, holding your nose up at them, and demanding everything from them and giving nothing in return.
Not the best metaphor, I’ll admit, comparing a country to the collection of people who might be thought of as “tech literate”, right, obviously it’s apples to oranges. Nonetheless, I’ve seen a very kind of, elitist attitude, directed towards new people, from a group of people that should welcome anyone who seeks to understand their technology better, anyone who seeks more tech literacy. I dunno, I just feel like I’ve seen enough “well justified” stack overflow asshole responses that are like “uhhh I GUESS I’ll tell you about this but you should’ve googled it” when google was what brought up the thread. Maybe that’s more on google, though, I dunno. It gives me redditor vibes, like, NTA reddit vibes, where people kind of take any morally righteous position they can, in order to justify them acting like a twatsack.
It’s also, practically, a strange mentality to take, because none of this is really going to prevent or discourage people from making stupid comments, right. Gatekeeping is the fucking stupidest idea I’ve ever really heard from the internet, because it just doesn’t work. It just creates people who want to spit back at you, and that’s obviously going to work itself into a kind of positive feedback loop where you’re going to get flooded with more shit in return. It is energy that would be better spent making more accessible software, if such a thing is possible in these circumstances.
I dunno, at large, it is kind of these mentalities that make me think, it’s not really any wonder why FOSS software, despite being more naturally suited to computer architecture, compared to other shit, isn’t really as used as it should be. It’s mostly just a practical concern, for people. If people have to put in 30 minutes to learn something, then that’s half an hour, and if they’re getting paid federal minimum wage in the states, you could charge them like three bucks and it would probably be worth their time. It’s against the ideal, right, to charge for it, obviously it’s not really going to be a guaranteed ROI, also you’re maybe going to see a smaller userbase, because lots of people would rather pay free than cheap by a staggering proportion, and also you really can’t charge for it, and still have your software remain open source, lest someone else just copies it and spreads it.
So that all sucks, in practical terms, but sort of my broader point is that the ideological position of FOSS basically can’t compete with your stupid free market charge for money for software kind of shit. We get windows, we get mac, because the software, and the philosophies that built them, were more naturally suited to the socioeconomic environment they all propagated in. They are “more practical”, both in terms of your end user’s uses, but also in terms of how they spread. It’s cynical. It is our old friend of naive techno-optimism, rearing it’s ugly head once again. It also makes me think, you know, that what entails FOSS, are philosophical positions that are naturally kind of more suited to a smaller developer, that can’t build in anti-crack measures, or realistically charge anonymous internet denizens for copyright infringement, and thus, can’t really charge money for software, especially from what’s already going to be an extremely limited userbase. It’s also to their advantage to maybe try to seek help from their limited install base and bolster their numbers that way. I dunno. It strikes me the same way as non-cyberspace attempts at anarchism, right, where it just doesn’t, as quickly, as cynically, secure the means of resistance, and ends up constantly getting crushed by larger predators of ideology.
I dunno man, I just wish people would stop being mean to each other on the internet. Causes me too much psychic damage.
Gatekeeping actually does work. You train people how to treat you. If you accept people behaving ignorantly, wasting other people’s time, taking zero effort to help themselves, being rude then they will continually do so. For instance see the folks who think the open source community is a free call center full of support agents instead of other users. If they get a negative response to being an asshole they on average don’t stick around or they change their tack. If supported and babied they will continue their behavior. The general public is on average not entirely irrational. Most wont keep touching the stove. More generally open source communities are rarely getting per user revenue. More realistically every user who doesn’t know anything and needs their hand held because they aren’t actually interested in learning anything is an unrecoverable cost which could sap the energy of the community and destroy it.
Consumers are used to a customer/company relationship
Great, so not going an extra mile in your hobby projects is gatekeeping now
Great write up, really thanks for sharing your thoughts, couldn’t agree more to this!
Good thoughts anon ;) thanks